


I have always been in love (with last chances especially)

by blackkat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Meetings, Flirting, Politics, dashing rescues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 18:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18722752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: She’s barely days away from finally challenging Yagura for his seat, so of course Zabuza chooses now to make himself a problem.





	I have always been in love (with last chances especially)

She’s barely days away from finally challenging Yagura for his seat, so of course Zabuza chooses _now_ to make himself a problem.

Mei curses quietly, checking her kunai as she hurries through the terrified quiet of the town. There are a handful of people, but they duck back the moment they see her and the shinobi behind her, and Mei thinks with a flicker of grim amusement that this is _definitely_ Zabuza’s influence. She’ll punch him for it, but she has to _reach_ him first.

“There's something happening on the bridge,” Ao tells her, and the frown on his face is deep with concern. Mei doesn’t like that look at _all_. “A lot of chakra, and a lot of bodies.”

Mei doesn’t ask if he means that in the literal sense; if no one’s dead yet, it will be a miracle all on its own, especially with the squad of specialized assassins headed this way with all of Suna's love. “Zabuza is good at bodies,” she says, wryly amused, and rounds a corner only to nearly crash headlong into a group of thugs. They shout, charge, but Mei doesn’t even slow. She leaps high over them, twisting in the air, and lands in a crouch, then rises. “Ameyuri,” she calls back.

With a loud laugh, Ameyuri draws her swords, lightning already crackling down the blades. “Hey, hey,” she tells Gato’s men, even as they careen to a wary halt. She’s tiny, pretty even with a mouthful of sharp teeth, and Mei can see in their faces that they can't decide whether or not they should be afraid. “Want to play a _game_ with me?”

“Make it quick,” Mei tells her, and glances over at Ao, ignoring the wash of chakra behind her. “Ao, is he—?”

“Dead?” Ao asks, shaping a hand seal. “Unfortunately, not yet. The Suna nin are likely targeting his opponent, though.”

If Zabuza gets himself killed before she can get to him, Mei will raise him from the dead, kill him herself, and then make him help her regardless of his existential state. He’s the only one who has a hope of changing Kisame's mind, and Mei _needs_ Kisame, needs Zabuza, needs _all_ of the Swordsmen if they're going to pull this off. At the very least, Zabuza can help them rescue Mangetsu’s little brother from Orochimaru’s laboratories, and that will get Mangetsu on their side.

The Seven Swordsmen are a tight-knit group, full of strange, sideways loyalties and life-debts, and Mei resents it and is counting on it equally. So much power, so ready to be used as long as she can figure out what threads to pull, which to discard and which to wrap tight around her fingers. Ameyuri was the first strand, but Zabuza, for all that he has the temperament of a starving, half-mad stray dog, is the gateway to at least three other Swordsmen, and Mei won't let him get himself killed before she can use that.

“Good,” Mei says, and picks up a run again. She can see the edge of a fog bank ahead of them, thick and unnatural; definitely Zabuza’s handiwork. And there's a cold wind, too, something sharp and steady like a midwinter blizzard. Mei recognizes that one, too. For all that Zabuza tried to pretend that his apprentice didn’t have a bloodline, she’d caught them training in out of the way places more than enough times to know that was a lie.

Ao casts a glance behind them as he keeps pace, half an instant before they enter the mist, and says, “Tsunade and Shizune just caught up with Ameyuri. They should be following shortly.”

Mei smiles thinly. Senju Tsunade is her ace in the hole, the reason Ameyuri is still on her feet, the first thread Mei caught and kept. All she had to do was bring work of Orochimaru’s actions to the deserter and add on a little light blackmail, some underhanded bribes. Tsunade might still be terrified of blood, but mention of all the children Orochimaru has taken from Kiri and all the things he’s done to them was at least enough to get Tsunade to throw in with Mei and her intention to rescue them. Shizune is skilled enough as a healer, especially with Tsunade's direction, that her phobia is no great loss.

It was Tsunade who pushed her to reclaim the Seven Swordsmen. Mei supposes that Senju Hashirama’s granddaughter would understand better than most the power of symbolism and all the ways consolidating strength can prop up a reign.

“Where’s Utakata?” Mei asks, and before Ao can even open his mouth, a figure slides through the veil of the mist to fall in beside her.

“Here,” Utakata says, though he looks entirely less than pleased about it. “A child is rousing the villagers against Gato, and the Suna nin passed the perimeter. We might want to hurry.”

“What do you _think_ we’ve been doing?” Ao demands, but before Utakata can retort Mei breaks into a run. The mist dampens chakra, but even so, she can smell blood on the wind, a touch of it but more than enough to worry her. Reports were mixed as to who the locals hired, but regardless of who the opposing team consists of, they don’t have a chance against Zabuza and Haku working together. They have even less of one against Zabuza and Haku _and_ a squad of Suna ANBU, aiming to take out Konoha's strongest jounin before they try for their invasion.

And then, in a sudden rush, the mist lightens. There's a wash of light breaking through, and a rush of sound like a thousand chirping birds. Mei's heart turns over in her chest, and she hurls herself forward, a shunshin sweeping her across the opening expanse of the bridge, just as a hand wreathed in lightning stabs towards Zabuza’s chest.

She’s half a second too late, but Haku isn't.

“Ao,” she shouts, even though her breath is tangled in her throat. “Get Shizune!”

Ao vanishes in a whirl of mist, even as Zabuza’s head snaps up. His eyes widen at the sight of her, but there’s no _time_. Mei can see a figure behind him, to match the one in front. There are children, too, a genin team guarding a civilian. One of them is down, full of Haku's senbon, but the other two are still alive, and that’s enough. “Utakata, the children,” Mei orders, and _moves_ , another shunshin putting her right behind Zabuza as a figure lunges out of the shredding mist.

Poison is the greatest threat against a Suna nin, so Mei doesn’t bother trying to block him. Raises a hand, calling up the heat of her chakra, and twists the two streams together, then opens her mouth. A surge of superheated steam leaves her lips, and the ANBU screams for a brief moment before he can't anymore. Mei doesn’t linger to watch him die; there are more of them, figures sliding out of the shadows, and the man who stabbed Haku is recoiling, letting Zabuza grab Haku's body as he retreats. Mei leaves him to it, takes half a second to glance at the man’s hitai-ate before she grabs his shoulder, hauls him down and to the side and grabs a kunai, driving it straight through the throat of the ANBU trying to stab him in the spine.

The bloom of Saiken’s power is a hurricane making landfall, a storm out at sea. There's another power beneath it, something sharp-edged like malice and anger, but Mei doesn’t look over to where Utakata is guarding the genin team. There are more Suna nin, and more, and if Mei wasn’t in the middle of summoning another breath of steam she’d laugh. This is a hell of a force to take out one Konoha jounin, especially when Suna is preparing for an invasion and relying on all the forces they can gather. To send this many after one team—

The Konoha jounin rises, staggers, but ducks a flight of kunai from an attacker and throws himself forward. He slams the man into the ground, lashes out with a kunai, and a spray of blood rises. Mei laughs, ducking a sword, and calls, “Do you want a hand up, handsome?”

The man hauls himself to his feet, though it looks like it takes an effort, and says, dust-dry, “I’d rather you focused, honestly.”

Mei snorts, because no one is a romantic anymore. “I can multitask,” she retorts, and brings one hand to her lips as two ANBU throw themselves right at her. It’s a risk to try this on a bridge, but—Mei's been training for years, and never more so than lately. If she can't manage this much, she doesn’t have a chance against Yagura, and she _knows_ she can face him.

Besides, the look on the Konoha jounin’s face when the two ANBU are buried by a flood of molten stone is more than worth the extra control necessary.

There's a tornado of leaves, and with twin thumps Tsunade and Shizune land, Ao right behind them. Immediately, Shizune gasps, scrambling for Zabuza and Haku, while Tsunade goes pale and jerks around to look away. Ao knocks an ANBU away from her, and calls, “Mei, Gato is coming!”

Mei scoffs, and maybe she should feel more threatened by a drug lord whose ships have been making problems all up and down Water Country’s coast, but she sends a wave of lave to intercept a Suna nin and her puppet and doesn’t turn. “Get Ameyuri and intercept,” she orders, and Ao vanishes again. It leaves Tsunade open, but Mei has faith she’ll protect herself if she has to. As long as she doesn’t draw blood, she’ll be fine.

There are more pressing problems, regardless. The Konoha jounin turns to meet another ANBU, but he’s flagging, and there's another coming up behind him, coordinated teamwork or one shinobi going in to steal another’s kill, Mei can't tell. She lunges either way, gets a hand on the side of the ANBU's head and slams him down, letting out a breath of acidic steam like blowing a kiss. Rises, then, just in time to catch the jounin with an arm around his waist as he nearly falls under the onslaught of sword-strikes. Twists, almost dragging him off his feet, and kicks out, catching the ANBU right in the balls with her heavy sandal. He wheezes, dropping, and the jounin takes advantage of the opening to drive a kunai into his heart. Mei dumps him on his feet, already looking for the next one—

There are none. The bridge is littered with bodies, but none of them are moving, and Mei can't feel any other foreign chakra signatures nearby, though she’ll need Ao to check to be sure. Shizune is still working frantically on Haku, Zabuza looming beside her, and he looks rather worse for wear but still in one piece, which is enough for Mei. Utakata has the genin, the two living ones clustered behind him and the scattered corpses he’s responsible for, and Tsunade is already pushing past him, heading for the crumpled form of the second male genin. If he’s still alive, she’ll help him, Mei is sure.

That’s a decent end to a hectic day, and while Mei would prefer that Zabuza hadn’t gotten himself involved with drug lords and Suna assassination squads to begin with, she’ll take this outcome happily. She shakes a few drops of blood off her hand, then tucks her hair back behind her ear and steps forward, putting a hand up to brace the jounin’s shoulder.

“All in one piece?” she asks, halfway to teasing.

The man casts her a sideways look, reaching up to pull his hitai-ate down over one spinning red-and-black eye. The sight of it makes Mei's breath catch, because there's only one person he could be, with that eye. Copy-Nin Kakashi, and suddenly the number of shinobi Suna sent after him makes far more sense.

“Thanks for the save,” he says, glancing past her, and then freezes, visible eye widening. “Sasuke—” he starts, and takes a sharp step. Then, all at once, his knees buckle, his eye rolls back in his head, and Mei lunges just in time to catch him as he crumples in a dead faint.

“Chakra exhaustion, really?” Mei asks with a sigh, because she knows Ao fights the same thing with his stolen Byakugan. With a grunt of effort, she hauls him up, getting an arm under his knees and staggering as she straightens. He’s a lanky bastard, limbs going everywhere, and Mei mutters a curse as she tries to get him settled in a way that means she won't drop him at an inopportune moment.

A big hand catches one of Kakashi’s arms, pulls it up to drop it on his chest before the way it dangles overbalances her, and Mei glances up into a blood-splattered, familiar face. Looks from Zabuza to Haku, still being worked on, and feels something turn over in her chest at the exhausted, worn look on Zabuza’s face.

“A good tool, to go that far,” she says, and Zabuza’s expression twists. He looks away, closes his eyes, but it’s not quick enough to hide the wetness of his eyes.

“Shut the fuck up,” Zabuza tells her hoarsely. “What are you doing here? I’ll send the next payment as soon as I can, I _told_ you that.”

Mei looks down at the Copy-Nin’s face, deathly pale and bruised, and shakes her head. “We’re past that,” she says. “The moon’s dark in three weeks, and we’re moving then. I need your help to get Mangetsu and Kisame on our side, though.”

For a long moment, Zabuza stares at her. Then, with an audible breath, he looks back at Shizune and Haku, swallows. “The kid will need somewhere to recover,” he says. “I assume you know where Kisame took himself off to, and you're not just yanking my chain.”

“He was spotted in Rice Paddy Country,” Mei says, and hefts Kakashi up a little. “Haku can stay with us. I'm sure Shizune and Tsunade will want to keep an eye on him.”

Zabuza rubs a hand over his face, and he’s bleeding from multiple dog bites, sword still embedded in the ground where it must have fallen, but he makes no move to retrieve it. He looks…shaken, Mei thinks, studying him. she hasn’t seen him look like this since the first time she found him after he left Kiri, two days after the failed coup. Even then he’d had Haku at his shoulder, conviction to drive him, their plan to tell him what to do next. This is different.

All Mei can do is give him something else to focus on. “We set up a base in the woods outside the town,” she says, and kicks him lightly in the ankle, as close to a friendly thump on the shoulder as she can get with her arms full. “I’ll give you the mission info when you get there.”

“I’ll be there once we can move Haku,” Zabuza promises, and gives the man in her arms a glance, then pauses. “It was a good fight,” he says, and turns, heading back to Haku's side.

Coming from Zabuza, that’s practically a protestation of eternal friendship and devotion, Mei thinks, amused. She glances at the head lolling on her shoulder, then shakes herself and heads for Utakata and Tsunade.

“Hey!” the little blond boy shouts as soon as he notices her approaching. “What’d you do to Kakashi-sensei? Let him go!”

“Naruto!” the girl hisses. “Kakashi-sensei passed out again, that’s all! She saved him!”

Naruto's expression twists, indignant and uncertain all at once, and Mei snorts. “He’ll be okay,” she tells them. “It’s just chakra exhaustion, I think. Tsunade—”

“He’s fine,” Tsunade says, and she’s tense, white-lipped, but her hands are steady as she traces them over the dark-haired boy’s body. Haku's icy senbon are already dissolving, his chakra diverted to keeping him alive instead of his created weapons, and the genin is stirring, frowning. “Whoever it was hit pressure points, not vital organs.”

“Haku's good at accuracy,” Mei agrees, and casts another glance back at Zabuza and his apprentice. _When he can be moved_ , Zabuza said, and Mei's willing to take that as a hopeful sign. Zabuza isn't one for blind optimism. “Can we move him? I want to get back to base before another surprise from Suna turns up.”

“Suna?” the girl asks, glancing nervously at one of the bodies. “But—but why would Suna be after us? Do they want Tazuna too?”

“They want your teacher,” Mei says. “Suna is picking off potential problems.”

With a huff, Tsunade gets to her feet, hauling the boy up with her and cradling him with one arm. “Hatake men are always a problem,” she says dryly, but the slant of her mouth softens slightly as she looks Kakashi over. “His father was, too. To Suna in particular.”

Personal grudges from the last war would make Suna all too eager to take him out, Mei thinks. Even more so than his reputation alone. “You’ll bring them?” she asks. “I need to get the camp started packing up.”

“Go.” Tsunade waves a hand at her, then tells the pink-haired girl, “Change in mission objective, so let’s go. Since your sensei is out for the count, I'm taking over.”

“What?” Naruto bursts out. “Why you, you old hag—ow!”

“Because I'm the ranking Konoha shinobi,” Tsunade tells him, digging her knuckles into the top of his head, “and if you call me that again I'm hanging you from the top of the bridge. _Move_.”

With a faint smile, Mei leaves them to it, calls up a shunshin, and vanishes in a burst of spinning mist and speed, with Kakashi cradled against her chest.

 

 

Mei is drawing up a map of Kisame's most recent sightings when the bedroll stirs. Lifting her head, she turns the lamp up a little higher, and watches Kakashi freeze, then instantly seem to drop back to sleep. She’s not fooled, though.

“You're about six miles from the town,” she says, “on an island just inside the border of Wave where it meets Water Country. We have a secure base here.”

There's a long pause, but finally one grey eye slits open. Kakashi stares at her for a moment, then glances up at the top of the tent above them. “Sasuke?” he asks hoarsely, though there's no hope in his voice.

“Alive,” Mei says with amusement. “Currently being babysat by a jinchuuriki with the rest of your team. I assumed even an Uchiha, an Uzumaki, and a kunoichi who can keep up with both of them couldn’t get into too much trouble with Utakata watching them.”

She can see the way Kakashi swallows, the relief that rises for half an instant before he covers it, crushes it down. “You might be surprised,” he says dryly, and carefully eases up on one elbow, hiding a flinch.

Mei doesn’t protest. She knows how shinobi can be about injuries, is the same way herself, honestly. Setting her pen and map aside, she rests an elbow on her knee, and says, “Suna's planning an invasion of Konoha. That’s why they sent assassins after you.”

“And here I thought it was my charming personality,” Kakashi jokes, and it makes Mei smile.

“I couldn’t say,” she teases. “Seeing as you fainted right into my arms, and I had to carry you back to camp, bridal style.”

Kakashi startles, eye going wide, and—

He’s an infamously dangerous jounin, one of the best in a village famous for its geniuses and strong shinobi. Mei's heard of him a hundred times over the years, dangerous missions and death-defying escapes, feats that shouldn’t have been possible for one man. And yet, at her words, he _blushes_. A trace of red climbs his cheeks, just visible under the mask, he looks away, rubbing the bridge of his nose before he drops his hand quickly like he’s realizing it’s a tell.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” he says, and it takes Mei a moment to scrape her braincells together enough to respond.

“It was no trouble,” she says, makes it a purr, and when Kakashi’s gaze snaps back to her she smirks, leaning forward and planting a hand on the edge of his blankets. “I’ll admit, I always imagined it happening the other way around, but this was fun, too.”

Kakashi’s gaze slides over her face, lingers for a moment on her mouth before it rises again to hold her eyes. “Oh?” he asks, and his cheeks are still a little flushed, but there's a spark of humor in his face. “With me in particular, or was I a handy stand-in this time?”

“I’ll never tell,” Mei promises slyly, and stops there, just close enough to be a tease. “Feeling better, Copy-Nin?”

“It would be hard to feel _worse_ ,” Kakashi says, droll, but he’s still not shifting away. Reaches up, instead, and touches the edge of Mei's hair where it falls past her face. It’s just a brush, light and hardly lingering, but it makes her take a breath, slow and warm in the lanternlight. “You look like an Uzumaki,” he says, more to himself than to her.

Mei tips her head a little, surprised. “Most people don’t pick up on that,” she says, and considers sitting back. Instead, though, she slides closer, until she’s sitting on the edge of the bedroll, able to feel the heat of Kakashi’s body. Of course, it also makes the exhausted paleness of his skinall too obvious. Leaning in until her hair brushes Kakashi’s arm, she puts a finger in the center of his chest and pushes him back down. “My father was an Uzumaki shinobi who survived the destruction of Uzushio. My mother was one of the commanders who led the invasion, and he infiltrated Kiri so he could kill her, but fell in love instead.”

Kakashi pauses, gaze on her face like he’s trying to figure out a reaction, and then says slowly, “That sounds romantic.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Mei smiles, bittersweet. “The Sandaime had him executed once he found out. I don’t know if that makes it more or less so. But I'm half Uzumaki either way.”

Not that she can ever acknowledge it; her position in Kiri is too tenuous right now for that. Zabuza took the lead during the last coup, took the blame and then the punishment for it, but Yagura is smart enough to know just how close she and Zabuza used to be, having ended up on the same genin team. He’s been having her watched, and it’s only now, when she’s supposed to be on a mission in Kumo with shinobi Yagura thinks are loyal to him, that she can risk making a move against him.

“And a Kiri nin,” Kakashi says, and the attention in his eye is a sharp, clever thing as he meets her gaze again. “You're giving me the information on Suna for nothing.”

“For everything,” Mei corrects, and her smile slips into something deeper, full of teasing as she leans in a little closer still. “Konoha likes to stick its nose in other countries’ business. I just want you to do it with a little more direction this time.”

“An alliance,” Kakashi clarifies mildly. “You want Konoha to help you.” For a moment, his attention slides past her, to where Zabuza is just passing the tent, deep in conversation with Ao, and he lifts a brow. “With Zabuza’s rebellion?”

It would be so easy to let him keep thinking that, but—Mei needs this alliance more. “With _my_ rebellion,” she says, and laughs at the shock that flickers over his face. With a sly smile, she pats his cheek, and says, “Don’t look so bewildered, Copy-Nin. We’re all in this together, but they're _my_ people. Kiri is my village, and this is my duty.”

She can't read the look that flickers over his face, half-hidden by the mask, but after a long moment he makes a sound of amusement. “I should have guessed,” he says. “Zabuza’s plans are terrible.”

Mei laughs, hooking a finger under his chin and tipping his face up just a little. “They are,” she agrees, and then says, “I saved you from a squad of assassins, rescued your genin, and brought you back to my castle to recuperate. Do you think that’s earned me anything, Kakashi?”

Kakashi hums, like he’s thinking deeply about it, and catches her wrist in one hand. The roughness of his calluses and the worn-smooth leather of his gloves make Mei's skin prickle pleasantly. “I'm sure there are tales that go like this,” he says solemnly. “They generally have an idea of what to do.”

“Most of them skip right to marriage,” Mei reminds him, raising a brow right back, though it takes effort to keep the smirk off her face. “I’d hardly object to getting married, but I think you should know my name first, handsome.”

The endearment makes Kakashi chuckle, and he closes his eyes as he settles back against the pillow, the lines of exhaustion clear in his face. “I’ll put my genin on it,” he says. “It sounds like a good way to keep them out of trouble.”

Out of trouble for _him_ , maybe. Mei rolls her eyes, but dips down, tugging Kakashi’s hitai-ate down a little more firmly and pressing a kiss to his forehead that’s only half-mocking. “I’ll escort you back to Konoha as soon as you can walk,” she says.

Kakashi makes a sound of agreement, though he’s largely asleep already. “Get me a crutch and we can go tomorrow.”

Tsunade will have to clear him first, but Mei doesn’t argue. Sits back, instead, and watches his breathing even out as he slides back into unconsciousness. Maybe she was mostly joking about a marriage alliance, but—

It’s an interesting thought, isn't it?

Mei smiles to herself, then picks up her pen and paper again. It’s three days from here to Konoha, and while it’s time she’s loathe to spend, it will be worth it if she can secure an alliance with Konoha. There will be time on the trip to bring matters up again, and Mei most certainly plans to.


End file.
